Uggh!

Too bad you don't speak spanish Pete because the translation is inaccurate.

Nadal said, Europe has always been a strong supporter of Tennis.

IW and Miami on clay? That's just what we need, more clay tournaments!

Poster no. 1 - thank you, I thought it sounded suspicious!
And Alexis - who cares what the surface if "we" (norteamericano) can't play on any of 'em?

But Pete, don't you think there were a bit too many American ATP officials involved in rearranging the clay court season so they could fill their NCAA brackets?
Anyway, the center of Rafa's argument is about the clay schedule this year. Pls address that issue in relation to the big whigs at the ATP and what their rationale was behind it. Saying "war is insane" does not address/justify anything.
Interested to see what you have to say.

Pete, sounds like a solution under a certain set of circumstances.

But I don't think tennis in America will wane under this scenario—although America's hyperinfluence on poplar culture already has, thanks to the events of the last seven years and the tanking dollar.

American's will just learn to play on clay, 'tis all.

If I may add to Alexis' post, we don't need more clay tourneys. There are enough in the South American swing prior to IW and Miami. And there's a good amount prior to the FO. They need to be spaced better.
Grass is what needs something that resembles a season!

I agree with randomlurker @ 6:14 --

Rafa's criticism was triggered by and is mainly directed at the way the European clay court season for tennis was (everyone seems to agree, no?) compressed to accommodate American college basketball and the broadcast industry while giving two American HC tournaments, IW and KB, plenty of time. It's an issue you don't address in your article.

I'm happy to see Rafa going out on the limb on this issue.

First?
I almost forgive you for jumping at nadal, because of the very nice solution you brought to the table:

****What about Indian Wells and Miami? It's simple: put them on clay ****

EXACTLY!

and put one master series for grass. ( Hamburg maybe ? after RG?)

I wish someone from ATP read this piece!

***thanks to the events of the last seven years and the tanking dollar.***
Syd- like my economics teacher says, more like the tanking 85 cents!

That would be so much fun! I'd love discreet seasons and surfaces.

Did you forget to mention the crabby-grass season between clay and concrete?

****Uggh!

Too bad you don't speak spanish Pete because the translation is inaccurate.

Nadal said, Europe has always been a strong supporter of Tennis.
**********

I guess the same translator who ruined Rafa's RG 2006 speech has translated this piece too!

Agree: More grass please.

[sorry, Contracturado, but you must use tiny url or some other link shortener; posting long links screws up the margins. I just broke yours up with carriage returns]

I respectfully disagree, this is what Nadal said: "estar destruyendo Europa, que ha sido el soporte del tenis durante muchos años".

i'd translate soporte for bastion.

I disgree with poster number one. http://www.elpais.com/articulo/deportes/Nadal/ATP/
destruyendo/circuito/europeo/elpepudep/
20080430elpepudep_18/Tes

Doesnt the ATP stand for Association of Tennis Professionals? If so, it seems to me that there isnt any active player involved in decision makings, which to me, mustnt be the case. I think its unfair that things are just handed down to the players without them being consulted at the very least. Maybe the active players should have a representative in the decision making body of the so called ATP. THIS YEAR'S CLAY CALENDAR IS TRULY UNFAIR TO NADAL WHOS THE DEFENDING CHAMP in all the events. We just cant accuse Rafa for speaking harshly on the ATP. Its the ATP who has been harsh on Rafa.

I believe that the top 50 players signed a petion against the adoption of tiebreaks in the USO around 1970.

It appears that the players are not very powerful

We rafafans must strongly support him . Vamos Rafa!

i guess the sponsors are the ones at the top of the pyramid making decisions.

pete i went back to the original interview of rafa in spanish, which is available in the barcelona site :

http://www.opensabadellatlantico.com/
just choose the rafa interview of 30/04

the extact quote is :
"esta gente que esta al mando de las cosas, lo que esta haciendo es destruir las cosas en europa en estos momentos, y europa ha sido el soporte del tenis durante muchos años"

in spanish the use of "these" isn't pejorative, at least it doesn't sound like it when you listen to rafa in spanish.
they should have translated : the people who are in charge of the "business", what they are doing is destroying things in europe right now, and europe has been the support of tennis during many years.

the wrong world is foundation, rafa used the world support, which is far from saying europe has been the foundation of tennis.

for me tennis stands on 2 legs, one in the US, the other one in europe...
what rafa says, at least for me, is that the ATP are soon going to have a leg that hurts badly, because of the dumb schedule.
earlier in the interview he says he has received some mail from "the people up there" his words ;)

With all due respect, I can't imagine the ATP making a business decision with the fairness to one player as the main concern! That's just silly. That said, of course Rafa is upset, and is entitled to his opinion.

If the tour becomes dominated by clay, this fan will lose a lot of interest. I like the surface, but I'm tired of it and wanting it to end right around when it does, if not sooner...

Mariej:

"the people up there" sweet.

Hmmm.. "mail from the people up there" I think his comments must be getting to the ATP now.

I agree 10000000% with Rafael.

It's not just Rafa that complains about the season and scheduling. Andy Roddick has also voiced concerns about the length of the season.

Is there an organization that represents the interests of the players? Do they have influence? One would think that the top players would have a tremendous amount of influence if they stuck together; the top ten players boycotting an important tournament ought to get some of their needs met.

"Rafa's criticism was triggered by and is mainly directed at the way the European clay court season for tennis was (everyone seems to agree, no?) compressed to accommodate American college basketball and the broadcast industry while giving two American HC tournaments, IW and KB, plenty of time. It's an issue you don't address in your article."

__________

I, for one, disagree. But I only disagree b/c I cannot be sure it's genuinely as described in the copied comment above. The scenario above *may* be the case, but it may also be the subtle, but important difference of the ATP choosing to take whatever American TV revenue it could get. And if that's what happened, that's the ATP serving itself, choosing the 'best' of no good options, not necessarily 'accommodating' anything or anyone else. I have no idea how dependent the ATP is on American TV revenue, but if 90% of the ATP's revenue once came from German TV (NINETY PERCENT??? HOLY COW!!!, by the way), well, obviously TV money matters. As I said when this was discussed before -- I'm not saying this is a good thing, but it may be a significant thing. Furthermore, it could be something else entirely. I just haven't seen/heard enough info to figure out what factors were truly at work. *shrugs* EdV hasn't returned my phone call yet, dangit, so I really have no idea. ;) hee!

Hmmm.... just curious!. If by chance Nadal is able to pull off wins in Barca, Rome and RG and Finals @ Hamburg, do you think the ATP will bother about the schedule adjustment?

tari, why the atp made an unecessary change in the spring callendar when things could have remained like before ? college basketball was that more impostant in the balance than the equity and balance of the european schedule on clay ???
since the most significant changes come after wimby to fit the olympics in the schedule... giving away a week in the middle of the clay season was some insane thing to do to players who will have very much hard time to compete in the summer !
since the atp board are mainly from the US, i guess the europeans clay events feel like being the third unecessary leg of the tour.
having rafa voicing his frustration, reflects the lack of talk and probably some resignation about the situation, in the interview, he admits there is nothing he can do but protest.

having IW and Miami on clay would be fun, at least the US players could not have anymore excuses for their lack of training on the red stuff ! i just hope they won't choose blue clay !

It's always amusing to come up with various fantasy schedules... I have to say the three sphere idea proposed above is possibly the best starting framework I've heard. Indian Wells and Miami could be on green clay, which if I'm not mistaken, plays somewhat more like hard court.

Of course it is more likely that Kimiko Date will win the US Open this year... but great idea nonetheless.

Being from Europe, I would be glad if the entire tour was played on the clay. I would love to see Miami and IW go clay. At least two of the GS should be on clay. The clay season brings out the best in players because they have to think rather than the ballbashing which is taking over the game on the faster American surfaces. Go Justine, world's #1!

I don't want more clay. There's enough already, just schedule it better so a defending champ like Rafa isn't disadvantaged for the sake of NCAA basketball. Grass is underrepresented, but I can live with that, personally.

I'd stop watching if all the matches were on clay. I like to see offense win, not marathon attritional and defensive rallies ending in ufes.

By the time Rafa dusts himself off after winning RG, I've had my fill and want to move on from clay.

In general are French tennis players very good clay courters? I was just wondering why the FO is in France.

I read this excerpt below from another posting on this website and it seems French play (as described by Fed) is something that would suit hard court. Although I think the statement is a tiny little bit disrespectful to the "Spaniards"

Federer himself is a fan of the Frenchmen prowling the circuit. "They have good techniques, playing style, unbelievable shot making,'' he said earlier this year. "They make you play better tennis than, for instance, the Spaniards, who are just going to throw the ball into play

tari, i think it wont be silly for the ATP to consider how this will affect only one player since this one player is just the defending champion of all the successive events.

The 'Roger Federer' Grass season should be longer (It can't be any shorter with one tourney and a warmup). It should include, like clay, at least 5 other tournaments, and 3 Masters Series besides just the 1 Grand Slam. Reduce the super long and extended and broken up hardcourt season, and replace some hardcourt tourneys with grass.

Grass is for cows

while

clay is, well, for the potmaker.

hard court for ...?

and carpet for ... the King oops sorry not the King but for Hollywood celebs lol

Roger is the defending champion of Hamburg 4 times, not Rafa once. Roger also has to defend finals in Monte Carlo and French Open.

Soccer exists outside America. America is not the world.

>What about Indian Wells and Miami? It's simple: put them on clay

Oh how I wish that would happen!

"clay is, well, for the potmaker."

And here I thought that grass was for the ... potmaker.

The US is only 4-5% of the world's total population and area. Some Americans want to think that the US is the entire world, and should be treated that way. That's just typical American patriotism and bias that honestly, is despicable and outrageously insane and wrong on every level. However, that is how some Americans think. It is unfortunate and sad, but TRUE.

And we should have at least a masters maybe two on grass before Wimbledon. Make Miami/IW on clay and make Hamburg on grass.

HOW in the heck would you make Miami and IW on clay?!?! I can understand Hamburg because they could just move it Halle. But how do you change them to being CLAY!

Insane? Of course. But isn't war always? And that's just where we are today - in an undeclared war between an emerging, seemingly self-sufficient Europe, with its clay - and clay-loving players - and the US, with its hard courts, entrepreneurial skills and marketing expertise (you could say that the US continues to be the major tennis power everywhere but on the field of play, so American dominance continues through the use of smoke-and-mirrors). South America and Asia remain on the fringe of the conversation for the obvious reason (lack of tournaments). Despite the terrific job done by the Australian Open, nobody does tennis like the US and Europe.

i don't think it's war... the atp is dictating big changes, sometimes in spite of comon sense, did you forget round robin failure ?
spain is about to get valencia on indoor iso clay for 2009, with madrid being something equivalent to IW on clay during the next spring...

i don't thing you can labell european as clay-loving players, there is more variety in styles in eurpoean players than in the handfull of americans playing hc style, imo.
yes they are better on the red clay than the us squad who lost with shame on the first rd of RG last year...
do we need to blame them for being more competitive on clay ? that's new !!!
or should we blame some americans guys could get their act toghether to prove they can play on clay like they illustrous pairs ???

if you look at the players from the generation 85/87 most of them are european and most of than allready crak the top ten some very consistenly others with ups and downs : rafa, djoko, murray, gasquet, baggy, berdych... on the american side querrey is the first youngster ranked at 39 and far behind him you find young, isner, odesnik and levine... then you have del potro and monaco...

if those young guns don't crak the rankings fast, roddick and blake might start to feel even more alone on tour...
i remember tim henman saying sometimes it was curious to go into a tourney with absolutly no english native speakers...

the tour is actually being dominated by european players but they don't have the corresponding weight in the decision making, the US is running the business since ages, and they do quite a good job most of the times, but the gap is widening fast with recent decisions with the current top players.

did you know that the top 20 players send a petition to the ATP board to keep EdV from being reconducted in his job without being challenged by someone else ??? can you say they are losing the trust ?

*did you know that the top 20 players send a petition to the ATP board to keep EdV from being reconducted in his job without being challenged by someone else ??? can you say they are losing the trust ?*

And the two American players in the top 20 signed on to this as well, so they're unhappy with Etienne deVilliers too.

Europe already gets a disproportionate amount of ATP love. One measly year of less than ideal scheduling shouldn't lead to such hysterics especially when the scheduling change is neither new nor unexpected. Simmer down Parera.

Some Americans think the US is the entire world all of the time, and all Americans think some of the time, but you can't say all Americans think the same thing all the time.

*broadcasting fees from German television accounted for over 90 per cent of the ATP's revenues*

What, how and why? I'd love to read full length post on how such a dumb business decision came to pass.

This isn't just about Nadal, he is rightly the King of Clay, but he isn't the only one playing the clay events, they're all out there defending their points. This schedule affects all the top clay court players and he was speaking on their behalf.

I wasn't taking a swipe at Rafa. As I said, it is his prerogative to complain. I was taking a swipe at the idea that business decisions should revolve around one player, and the titles he is defending. I also think this year is unusual. Again, I have no problem with Rafa complaining. :)

Hmmm.... I think the ATP should take a cue from the WTA. It seems they don't have such scheduling issues (at least that we know of), no players signing petitions against the top gun, nor ranking points changing haphazardly because of esoteric scheduling.

mrs santa :
i wonder what roddick or blake would say if the moved up IW or miami to accomodate european soccer beach championships ?
i'm smiling at the eventual puzzled look on andy's face ;p

clay is for the potter

grass is for the pot-smoker!

fair enough tari ;)

2ma !!! i better go to bed !!!
catch you tomorrow !

America being the superpower in terms of money and sports audience: Hardcourt should be the longest season from August to February

Hold IW and Miami in February so that Hardcourt winners in Melbourne can truly cement their hardcourt status.

European clay should be from March to May. American hardcourt tourneys during this period should be considered 'minor' that can be totally ignored by the elite players -- treat them as crumbs for the journeymen.

Grass is high-maintenance and should be kept to June-July.

Marie J I don't buy that the ATP squashed all the clay tournies primarily for NCAA. The 2004 schedule also had the 3 TMSs in 4 weeks. And that was back when finals were best of 5.

http://tinyurl.com/3kym9p

Unless of course the ATP only chooses to accommodate the NCAA once ever 4 years.

*The U.S. and England were the foundation of the tour*
always cracks me up when england is treated as a *non-european* entity.
but i agree with your view, Pete, that american interest, marketing and dollars are important for tennis worldwide, though i think sports are actually the part where the US superpower of making its own taste a worldwide one is considerably smaller than in other parts of pop culture.
and what a pity that the good old days when we germans financed world tennis are gone. isn´t it a bit sad that we didn´t get more out of it?
at best we had two measly indoor masters, the grand slam cup. plus one tier 1 event and one tier 2 event in the wta... seems like a small revenue for paying 90%.
we should have demanded two slams per year played on our ground. if not more.
*i want my money back*!

Bismarck:

England and the U.S. (Mother and child) have a lot more in common than England and continental Europe. Germany, excepted.

"Everything we know about culture, especially pop culture, suggests that if something goes out of style in America, it goes out of style everywhere"

I couldn't help but be struck by that sentence. An excellent piece. but you have to be american to write something like that with a straight face even though it's taken out of context! lol

also, since the quote is not accurate in the first place, the ending sentence is as misleading as the beginning of the article:

I almost wish that Nadal's characterization of the tour's "foundation" would be accurate, but reason we're in our current bind is because it is not.

But Overall I agree with all the points you raised. :)

" I don't buy that the ATP squashed all the clay tournies primarily for NCAA. The 2004 schedule also had the 3 TMSs in 4 weeks. And that was back when finals were best of 5."

MrsSanta: But that didn't affect Nadal, so no one here cares about that.

I totally disagree with Ognost, if you look at attendances, and where players are coming from, Europe has been much more supportive of the tour than America. A few years ago IW had to be bailed out because of financial problems and when you watched the matches in Miami, there were rows and rows of empty seats. The YEC moved to Europe because it got very little support when it was in LA. If you look at where tennis is ranked in America, it's far below football, soccer, baseball and basketball. Sorry to inform the Americans, but you're are no longer the center of the universe and the European clay season deserves to be longer. I find it very unfair that 3 of the four slams are played on the faster surfaces. Go red clay! Also, England is clearly in Europe, so Wimbledon had a lot to do with laying the foundation of the tour. Go Justine, world's #1!

*emerges from lurkdom*

Sorry Pete, but I think your argument would have more legs if IW and Miami were the only big time hard court tournaments in North America. There's also Montreal/Toronto & Cincinnati as well as the U.S Open. I think Rafa's point is quite fair. Do we want a tour that's full of hardcourt tournaments? I know I don't. I'd like to see more grass tournaments, the clay season should be longer, and the indoor season should be cut in half. Why is variety coming at the expense of greedy tournament directors, and clueless ATP execs? Not to mention, natural surfaces are easier on the body. Do we want massive pullouts and injuries from now on?

And what about Russia? Shouldn't they be given a major. This way it could count as both European and Asian.

SCT - heehhee - you've hit the nail on the head there i think!

I don't see why you would post a inaccurate quote, then come up with an inaccurate article.

I forgot to add that I think Sweden deserves a lot of credit for it's contribution to tennis. I mean Borg wasn't just a tennis player, he was an international sex symbol. I think that the right way to characterize his appeal.

Yeah, I've never quite got the tour after the AO and before the clay, it's kind of a lost child with no direction home. The rest of the year leads to a big event (even if W and the AO are short leads), but after the AO it's adrift. Not sure making the 5th slam clay is the answer but it needs something...

And BTW, last week I proposed Feat of Clay for Rafa's accomplishments and see it as a headline yesterday - I want my due! Oh, ok, it was real obvious and didn't require a lot of thought, but still, can't a fella get some love?

if grass has only one GS and an atp event prior to that, i kinda think similar thing could be done to clay, take out one masters event prior to RG and it will leave enuf time for Rafa...wasnt there talk of deprecating Hamburg and MC sometime last year? Then it wont be 3 masters in 4 weeks...it will only be 2 masters...and everyone can be happy.
I for one think, there is an overload of clay tourneys.

btw, i have no trouble with having more time in europe and more tourneys there....i just dont think they should all be on clay...grass and even maybe HC in europe for a change.

I love the clay season' growing up, watching tennis-- the clay of RG always brings back memories.
i love clay! even tho most the courts in the US are hardcourts.
but Ive been noticing rafa crying about the tourney schedule, maybe he's feeling the heat to win and keep in the points race. his rational, why not make the clay season longer, more break time?! Well i say toughy', stop cryin and beat federer on the hardcourts if you want the points! Alot of tennis is tradition, thats why things are the way they are.
With petes point tennis floats in and out of popularity here in the usa, eventually another slamer will emerge probably not for another 10 years atleast the 90s early 00's were too good.

[Edited] See the site rules, please.

I agree that we need more GRASS tournaments; not clay.

If you look at the 2008 ATP calendar, here's roughly what you'll find:

32 on Hard Court
26 on Clay
6 on Grass
4 on Carpet

There twenty too many clay tournaments and twenty too few grass tournaments. Discuss among yourselves ...

Playing on clay changes the nature of the game so much that it does not appear to be tennis as played on hardcourt-grass_pre_2001-carpet. And the difference is somewhat like the difference between ice hockey and filed hockey :-)

There twenty too many clay tournaments and twenty too few grass tournaments. Discuss among yourselves ...

Playing on clay changes the nature of the game so much that it does not appear to be tennis as played on hardcourt-grass_pre_2001-carpet. And the difference is somewhat like the difference between ice hockey and field hockey :-)

"Playing on clay changes the nature of the game so much that it does not appear to be tennis as played on hardcourt-grass_pre_2001-carpet"

And this matters why? I think we should get rid of hardcourts because they changes the nature of the game. Let's go back to grass and clay only for the slams.

While we are on the topic of tennis surfaces, why not water? Rafa and Serena have played on water :-)

Just an advice to the writer - base your "work" on facts if you involve real people. When you write a whole article based around a quote that's mistranslated and leave it on your blog even after you know that just so you can have an "interesting" discussion, well sorry, but that doesn't make you a better writer. If you want to have a point to discuss, make it from your own name, not using a player's one.

And to all who are whining that Nadal says that the scheduling of the calendar is wrong is petty, imagine this - three hard court MS + an ISG level of hard court tournaments all crammed into one month because of soccer TV rights. Oh, and imagine that that's 80% of the HC season in points. You think the "hard-court specialist" will not cry out? Dream on. Because apparently that's what you are doing right now.

I, too, would like to see at least one MS tournament on grass, but since it would have to be in Europe the chances of the ATP approving that are like 0.00000001%.

*broadcasting fees from German television accounted for over 90 per cent of the ATP's revenues*

What, how and why? I'd love to read full length post on how such a dumb business decision came to pass.
________

Waterfall charts were doubtlessly involved. ;)

Man, I miss the time of Pangea when all the tournaments were played on one continent and there was none of this meshugas.

The schedule changes this year are triggered by the Olympics, in part. I don't know why Rafa has been going on and on about the ATP and the damn American NCAA basketball :-)

LOL ptenisnet! The good 'ol days.

So the question is not whether the HC specialist would complain or not. It is whether or not (and how) the complaint would be entertained. I am sure there will an equal amount, if not more of "whining".
And the interesting thing is that the statement makes the same amount of sense if written this way.
"And to all who are SAYING that Nadal WHINES about ..."

Ptenis,

If you look closely at the map of Pangaea at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pangaea (under Configuration of Pangaea), you notice that most of the matches were played on grass,
some oon clay :-)

Damn thing looks more like a golf course than a bloody continent. And the water hazard is all around you.

I think hard courts hadn't been invented at that time. Also no luxilon and double faults.

Ptenis,

And Pangaea seems like a natural playground for golf :-)

jinx 2h4h

ptenisnet - If expressing your option in a civilized manner on a matter that concerns one is considered whining to you, well, I can't help with that.

Then the other players are whining too? Because Nadal isn't the only one to say this. It's just the one that the media focuses on. And that's not his fault.

Well shantal,
ditto.

Sorry, Ptenis. After I posted the first about grass/clay on Pangaea, I thought it looked like a golf course and posted the next one before I saw your post :-)

Obviously, Rafa is making these statements out of frustration and self interest, but I don't critisize him for them. If he gets to the final in all the upcoming clay court events and repeats a Wimby final, along with his relatively good hardcourt results early in the year he will have played as many matches by July as most guys will all year. For him not to be running on fumes by the US Open he would have to skip some of these clay court events. Obviously if he wants to be No. 1 he has to defend his points, so he is against a rock and a hard place.

More tournaments on grass PLZZZZZZZZZ. Now that these days grass is plaing much slow even clay-court experts (Rafa, Ferrero) are able to do very well on it. It being a natural surface too would not harm the body! Convery Miami and IW to grass! Dont see either Rafa, Nole, Federer or ARod complaining!

Not having even a single Masters on Grass is a SIN!

sports-related article. A very fine read!

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/05/01/earlyshow/main4061276.shtml

some of you guys just don't get it. Rafa will not play the finals by himself (if he gets to them all!). The compact calendar affects everyone. Please come forward and say having 3 master series in 4 weeks in sane. There has been just 6 withdrawls in Barcelona this week. Rafa is not one of them. This is the future of tennis for the rest of the year. More injuries, more withdrawls and more disappointed fans.

You ignore deliberately the fact that the measly one week rest after MC has been taken out in favor of CBS and American College Basketball. Your solution is : "then Rafa should forego some ranking points and not play some of these tournaments". MonteCarlo, Hamburg and Rome are mandatory and just one week after Hamburg there is RG and then Wimbledon.

Rafa will hopefully dump Hamburg and Rome and at most lose 500 points. Try to look at the schedule without your biase towards Rafa. Try to see that having IW and Miami 7 weeks after AO and then MC-Rome-Hamburg in 4 weeks is just not right.

If you wish for some players to get injured so that some others can get ahead, I have nothing more to say! This is a calendar for everyone and the Disney curse will affect all the players , not just Rafa. That's why 17 of top 20 players have signed that letter.

It is not just Parera!

"Man, I miss the time of Pangea when all the tournaments were played on one continent and there was none of this meshugas."

LOL!

""Rafa's criticism was triggered by and is mainly directed at the way the European clay court season for tennis was (everyone seems to agree, no?) compressed to accommodate American college basketball and the broadcast industry while giving two American HC tournaments, IW and KB, plenty of time. It's an issue you don't address in your article."

__________

I, for one, disagree. But I only disagree b/c I cannot be sure it's genuinely as described in the copied comment above. The scenario above *may* be the case, but it may also be the subtle, but important difference of the ATP choosing to take whatever American TV revenue it could get. And if that's what happened, that's the ATP serving itself, choosing the 'best' of no good options, not necessarily 'accommodating' anything or anyone else."

this is what i was hoping the article would address. instead, we're treated to an article completely off-tangent from the gist of nadal's complaint. so it seems nadal's complaints are indeed falling on deaf ears. and not just with the atp but with the media as well. *sigh*

Everyone seems to be complaining that the ball ain't clearly visible on clay. It was said during the MC matches (also reiterated by Tom Perrotta too. I could see the ball as clearly (on my Sony TV) as the sun at the time of sunrise!

Thank you, zolorafa. I couldn't have said that any better myself. Totally agree.

Interesting take with all the historical facts you plotted out. However, Nadal's claim is primarily to just convince the "American-executive dominated ATP" to consider the hard physical conditions for the players..and that's it. He of course is trying to point out the importance of European tennis players as well. Today tennis is known not just because of "American" entrepreneurial and marketing skills, but because European players such as Nadal and Federer and Djokovic are making it possible. Also, when you say "American"...as in "American entrepreneurs" promoting tennis and having the big influence....you should just say "capitalists"...because a capitalist is not loyal to any nation but money and only money. That's the nature of the business. If some American entrepreneur decides to not support tennis, I'm sure in this globalized world tons of other entrepreneurs looking for opportunity will come running to offer tennis the needed support.

I have not read through all of the comments but thank you MarieJ for the confirmation of the translation and use of "soporte" translated at support vs. foundation. I had to run out of the house when I saw this piece pop up and felt compelled to throw out my disagreement on the translation which was the angle of Pete's piece.

My question on this:
Apparently the top 20 players have signed a letter asking that other resumes be considered before renewing EV's contract. Great!

Why has the press not asked other players about this issue in their press interviews? Why has no other player come forward on this?